PPQ_Purple
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Due to unforeseen events you can expect my return no earlier than Q3 and likely in Q4 of this year.
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PPQ_Purple
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While I get ready to get back to work on more ships here are some of my thoughts on design. In this edition particularly a look at magic.
Magic is almost omnipresent in the FFH world. Some civs of course might make more or less use of it than others. But for a military ship captain or designer it represents a constant concern. Thus it should come as no surprise for anyone that I have taken a proactive approach when it comes to having naval units designed to fire both magic and conventional attacks. But this far you already know. What I want to discuss here is in brief my philosophy when it comes to picking between guns, arrows and spells.
#1. Galleys and Triremes
When it comes to these early ships combat in reality revolved around one of two major types of action. If your crew was skilled, your captains brave and everything going your way the ideal tactic to use was ramming. A fleet would simply row up to an enemy at an angle and try to strike into their unprotected sides shattering oars and breaching the hull with hopes to split the opposing ship apart. Usually though this didn't really work out. And in the end, no matter what tactic you chose battles at sea tended to devolve into melees no different than those on land as ships entangled with one another disgorging compliments of marines and angry oarsmen in a viscous struggle to the death.
It is very easy to see how in such a scenario mages, even if low in numbers would be a massive tactical advantage. Beasts summoned right up onto an enemies deck, gusts of wind to knock away their arrows and men overboard or even fireballs to set their ships ablaze before they can even reach you. The CIV graphics engine does not and realistically can not represent this. So I did not even try. But what I did do was place a high emphasis of expressing this tactical reality.
TLDR; All civs that make a lot of use of magic and start with easily representable mana schools such as sun, ice, air or fire such as the Illians, Amurites or Sheaim get galleys and triremes armed with magic.
#2. Carraveles, Carracks and Frigates
The age of sail in FFH is somewhat of a gray area technology vise. Put simply we have the reality of cannons and cannon armed ships appearing well before gunpowder does in the tech tree. My personal explanation for this (completely non cannon of course) is to look at history. Gunpowder and cannon existed in militaries for a very long time before they became effective as field pieces. The reason for this was simply that metallurgical skill at the time was not yet advanced enough to make cannon which would both not blow up on you and still be small and light enough to be portable. Ships of course didn't really have that problem which is why you did in fact see cannon making their way onto them well before they turned up on the field bombarding infantry.
My conclusion is that something similar is likely happening here. Cannon make it onto early ships because the technology to make and use them wasn't really lost. Not entirely anyway. And as the knowledge of old Patria is slowly recovered this first generation of artillery is simply too cumbersome and heavy to be used on anything but ships. The technology in the tech tree therefore represents not the discovery of gunpowder as a whole but the advancement of said knowledge to the point where its use becomes practical and commonplace. At least that's my head cannon.
As for what this means for my ship models it's fairly simple. Those civs that don't get gunpowder at all in their tech tree can still have cannon firing ships. The civs that are very invested into magic such as the Amurites or Sheaim simply have no incentive to rush early cannons into production so their ships stick with magic attacks. And the rest gets cannon armed ships as usual.
#3. Man O'War and the rest
When it comes to this late in the tech tree ship board cannon will have been perfected. So really the only ones not using them will be civs with a massive investment in magic such as the Infernals who really can and do field convents of mages that can match the broadside of an angry ship of the line.
That concludes my thoughts on the matter. Feel free to comment, rate and complain.
Magic is almost omnipresent in the FFH world. Some civs of course might make more or less use of it than others. But for a military ship captain or designer it represents a constant concern. Thus it should come as no surprise for anyone that I have taken a proactive approach when it comes to having naval units designed to fire both magic and conventional attacks. But this far you already know. What I want to discuss here is in brief my philosophy when it comes to picking between guns, arrows and spells.
#1. Galleys and Triremes
When it comes to these early ships combat in reality revolved around one of two major types of action. If your crew was skilled, your captains brave and everything going your way the ideal tactic to use was ramming. A fleet would simply row up to an enemy at an angle and try to strike into their unprotected sides shattering oars and breaching the hull with hopes to split the opposing ship apart. Usually though this didn't really work out. And in the end, no matter what tactic you chose battles at sea tended to devolve into melees no different than those on land as ships entangled with one another disgorging compliments of marines and angry oarsmen in a viscous struggle to the death.
It is very easy to see how in such a scenario mages, even if low in numbers would be a massive tactical advantage. Beasts summoned right up onto an enemies deck, gusts of wind to knock away their arrows and men overboard or even fireballs to set their ships ablaze before they can even reach you. The CIV graphics engine does not and realistically can not represent this. So I did not even try. But what I did do was place a high emphasis of expressing this tactical reality.
TLDR; All civs that make a lot of use of magic and start with easily representable mana schools such as sun, ice, air or fire such as the Illians, Amurites or Sheaim get galleys and triremes armed with magic.
#2. Carraveles, Carracks and Frigates
The age of sail in FFH is somewhat of a gray area technology vise. Put simply we have the reality of cannons and cannon armed ships appearing well before gunpowder does in the tech tree. My personal explanation for this (completely non cannon of course) is to look at history. Gunpowder and cannon existed in militaries for a very long time before they became effective as field pieces. The reason for this was simply that metallurgical skill at the time was not yet advanced enough to make cannon which would both not blow up on you and still be small and light enough to be portable. Ships of course didn't really have that problem which is why you did in fact see cannon making their way onto them well before they turned up on the field bombarding infantry.
My conclusion is that something similar is likely happening here. Cannon make it onto early ships because the technology to make and use them wasn't really lost. Not entirely anyway. And as the knowledge of old Patria is slowly recovered this first generation of artillery is simply too cumbersome and heavy to be used on anything but ships. The technology in the tech tree therefore represents not the discovery of gunpowder as a whole but the advancement of said knowledge to the point where its use becomes practical and commonplace. At least that's my head cannon.
As for what this means for my ship models it's fairly simple. Those civs that don't get gunpowder at all in their tech tree can still have cannon firing ships. The civs that are very invested into magic such as the Amurites or Sheaim simply have no incentive to rush early cannons into production so their ships stick with magic attacks. And the rest gets cannon armed ships as usual.
#3. Man O'War and the rest
When it comes to this late in the tech tree ship board cannon will have been perfected. So really the only ones not using them will be civs with a massive investment in magic such as the Infernals who really can and do field convents of mages that can match the broadside of an angry ship of the line.
That concludes my thoughts on the matter. Feel free to comment, rate and complain.
PPQ_Purple
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Something to hold you over whilst I work:
black_imperator
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Very nice, as usual ^^
PPQ_Purple
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The scions pack is now officially done in terms of models so now I just have to do the alternate textures for the Amurites and others that share the Patrian lineage. So you can look forward to those as well in the next release.
PPQ_Purple
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Sample for the Belseraphs. The only thing I had to go on was their color scheme and one single line from the scenarios saying that the ships were good but painted gaudily. Which is why I went with a combination of their basic colors (as seen in some units), white hulls (because I always imagined their ships having white hulls as a kid) and some patchwork, colorful decoration and just went crazy on the galleon.
Note that this is all still beta and I am just posting it to see what you think of the general color scheme.
Note that this is all still beta and I am just posting it to see what you think of the general color scheme.
great picture.
I find that the rowing boats (galley trireme) are too much purple and not enough white...
I'd go with almost only white hull, and the purple on the sails or something.
the arlequin-sails ships are the one giving the greates "carnival" feel !
(is it hard or easy to add some carnival tents on the decks of the ships ?)
I find that the rowing boats (galley trireme) are too much purple and not enough white...
I'd go with almost only white hull, and the purple on the sails or something.
the arlequin-sails ships are the one giving the greates "carnival" feel !
(is it hard or easy to add some carnival tents on the decks of the ships ?)
black_imperator
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yeah, i prefer the arlequin-sails instead of the yellow and dark blue ones
PPQ_Purple
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Arlequin is a word for those colorful patchwork things right? This is the first time I heard that word. Anyway my current plan is to use those for transport ships (galleons, QOTL, arcane galleon) and the striped ones for warships as those do need to be more serious. But I will be adding more color to them in general to offset this. Not sure how though. Stay tuned for when the next version arrives.
For example since that image I've repainted the shields to make them different colors as on the galley and removed the shields from the tradeship to make it look less militant. And am looking to change the color of the rear tent on the galley.
For example since that image I've repainted the shields to make them different colors as on the galley and removed the shields from the tradeship to make it look less militant. And am looking to change the color of the rear tent on the galley.
well it's because the patchwork sails look (from far away) to the hatched colours of the arlequin (harlequin ?) (which were patchworked pieces of clothes... but with order within). it's true however when zooming the sails are mostly colored patchwork instead of harlequins
http://villagepartyshop.co.uk/carni...tume-jacket-pants-belt-hat-8003558577910.html
http://villagepartyshop.co.uk/carni...tume-jacket-pants-belt-hat-8003558577910.html
PPQ_Purple
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I see. I guess I just newer saw it spelled without the H.
PPQ_Purple
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Example of what I mean by more colorful:
The feeling I am going with these warships is that they might look fun and colorful and stuff but they are still serious warships. They will still mess you up. And the crew might all be wearing unmatching socks but they are still serious sailors bent on murdering you and taking your drink and gold as opposed to just getting drunk. Even if they will get drunk and party afterward. It's sort of like... well how do I put it. I remember a story from the scenarios (or was it a post here on the forum) about basically a carnival that had a tent with a girl that turns out to be a succubus. Fun yet ultimately very much not. And I am trying to capture that.
The feeling I am going with these warships is that they might look fun and colorful and stuff but they are still serious warships. They will still mess you up. And the crew might all be wearing unmatching socks but they are still serious sailors bent on murdering you and taking your drink and gold as opposed to just getting drunk. Even if they will get drunk and party afterward. It's sort of like... well how do I put it. I remember a story from the scenarios (or was it a post here on the forum) about basically a carnival that had a tent with a girl that turns out to be a succubus. Fun yet ultimately very much not. And I am trying to capture that.
PPQ_Purple
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Remember when I said those were beta? Here is my finished caravel.
black_imperator
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very, very nice and very, very balseraph ^^
PPQ_Purple
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After our last talk I am basically shifting them more in that direction. Although I am still keeping the darker colors for warships a be it with more added paint and bits especially to the sides.
PPQ_Purple
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Alright everyone. As is tradition by now the new year brings a new release. My initial goal was to have all ships done this year but real life got in the way. Still lots of work was done and here are all the civs I have completed so far. This release includes some new civs as well as fixes to old ones so my advice for installation is to delete the old modules and replace them with these.
Civilizations included are:
Civilizations included are:
- SVARTALFAR
- LJOSALFAR
- HAMSTER
- ILLIANS
- DOVIELLO
- CALABIM
- INFERNAL
- MERCURIAN
- SHEAIM
- SCIONS
black_imperator
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yeah, a new version !!!
PPQ_Purple
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No new units this time (although I do have several ready to package, don't worry) but a tool. Since I figure I can't do all the art for AOE my self, and even if I could I actively encourage others to chip in I decided to share some of my homemade tools that I use. Starting with my color picker. To use it, simply place the exe in your "Beyond the Sword\Mods\Ashes of Erebus\Assets\XML\Interface" folder and pull out a shortcut to where ever you want it to be. The tool will, when opened show you all the colors of the various civs at a click of a button. It's nothing fancy, but it's great if you need to manually add teamcolor to hundreds of models.
And yes, it will work in any other mod, module or the base game as well. Just as long as the mod/module does not rename: CIV4ColorVals.xml and CIV4PlayerColorInfos.xml.
And yes, it will work in any other mod, module or the base game as well. Just as long as the mod/module does not rename: CIV4ColorVals.xml and CIV4PlayerColorInfos.xml.
PPQ_Purple
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With the end of the year rapidly approaching I have to say that the sheer number of units this year will probably be less than the last. But still, there shall be units and they shall be on schedule. To hold you off until than I'd like to introduce you to my new friend, the used stag salesman.
